My June 18, 05 wedding @ Greentree C.C. UPDATED with pics and ALBUM PROOFS pg 2&3

I really wish I could go through the wedding day again! It went by way too fast! But I really enjoyed myself. Things didn’t go perfectly but still it was a great day and a lot of things that went wrong no one knew about except for us so it’s not that bad. My advice to other brides is to enjoy your day no matter what and to do as much research as possible on your vendors and yes there may always be a few negative reviews on every vendor BUT if the majority is bad there’s a reason for it! So take the advice and experiences of girls here seriously!!

LIW: A++++
This site has been sooo helpful, I’m so glad I became addicted! I’ve gotten so many great ideas, met so many nice people, everyone has been so nice and helpful!

Greentree Country Club, New Rochelle, NY: B+
Greentreeclub.com

We dealt mainly with Michael who is the owner (it’s a family business) and hes a sweetheart, they were really nice and easy to work with. The day of, the placed look amazing!! And they took care of us as soon as we got there, till the very end. We had a large wedding, 750 guests ended up coming, I think they did a great job handing that many people, which is not easy obviously!!! Our guests loved the food and were amazed that the entrees were still so good even though they were cooking for that many. They were able to take the dinner orders and serve all our guests within about one hour, which I think is pretty amazing. We used the same room for the ceremony and the reception, Greentree took longer than they told us they would to set up for the reception and CH went on longer than we wanted. Also at one point they wouldn’t let any guests use the restrooms in the main ballroom while they were setting up for the reception which we only came to know after the wedding was over. That wasn’t accommodating to our guests since we had so many people there and needed as many bathrooms as possible. And Michael told us that he could seat even up to 1000 if a dance floor wasn’t needed, and even with 750 there it was tight so they did exaggerate the number of people that they could seat. Still I don’t regret booking Greentree, it’s the only place that made me go “wow” when I walked in, I loved the view of the water, they put in beautiful porcelain floors in the ballroom, and we got great pics outside especially since the weather was perfect that day! And we had the whole place to ourselves the entire day! I think if we had less guests it would’ve made the day go by even smoother.

Doc, Rosalie-Expressions Events (LIW vendor) : A+++
Rosalie was great! Im soooo glad she was there! She was at my hall way before I was to make sure things were ok. She did a lot of running around, took care of all the details, followed up on everything, followed up w/ the vendors the morning of the wedding, if there were any problems she let me know what was going on (limo and florist), hiring her was the best thing I could have done, I really think I would have gone crazy otherwise! She stayed w/ me the whole day until we got into the limo and packed all my things for me and paid all the vendors. When hiring a DOC, make sure they’ll be there from the beginning to the very end! My parents were very impressed with her as well.

Hair-Tarale: A++++
I love Tarale, shes the nicest person and sooo talented. She was on time and did a beautiful job on me, my sisters, and mom. I had gotten the wrong type of extensions (the sales lady’s fault at the beauty store!) and Tarale was nice enough to use some of hers that she had in her car. We were all really happy with our hair. It lasted all day and night. It’s such a shame future brides won’t get to use her in 2006. But she told me she wants to go back to doing brides later on if possible.

Makeup-Denise Angel Eyes(LIW Vendor): A++++
Denise did a beautiful job!!! I loved how my makeup came out, I just wished I had used a darker lipstick but that was my fault not hers, she did a great job on my sisters too. I had the airbrushing done and my sisters did the traditional makeup. Our makeup lasted all night, the only thing I retouched was gloss. She was also on time and very sweet. I highly recommend her!!!!

Photography-Dan Wagner (LIW Vendor): A+
Dan was on time and great to work with, he also handled our large wedding very well and had patience all day especially while taking family pictures which can be very frustrating!!! He even learned a lot of family members’ names which we thought was nice and helped when taking pics. He stayed all day and worked very hard. We got our proofs in less than a week and they all look beautiful!!! We’re having such a hard time narrowing down the choices for our album. Dan does great work and gave us a great price with a package we customized ourselves. I told him that I wanted our pictures to be bright and emailed him samples of pics I liked and didn’t like so he knew what I meant and he followed directions because I love my proofs and I’m very picky about pictures. I definitely highly recommend him! I will edit this when we get the albums and enlargements back. See proofs below.
We received our albums and they look great!! The pictures look beautiful, we got a digital album and I love the layout. Everyone who sees it compliments us on the quality of the pictures. We were very pleased w/ our enlargements as well. Dan was great to work with even after our wedding was over, which I think says alot about his professionalism.

Video-Rambling Rose Video: A+
Ramblingrosevideo.com
Nick was referred to us by Dan and was great from the first day we met him, we liked him and loved the samples he showed us. He was on time and so was the video guy that went to DH’s house in the morning. He’s waiting on us for our growing up pics and HM pics, to include in the video. I’m sure he’ll do a great job and will edit the review when we get our video. His prices are very reasonable. Highly recommend him!

Limo-M&V: F

The only reason we booked M&V is because they were the only co. that had the 2 cars we really wanted a BMW X5 and BMW 745. We had no idea about their bad rep till we had already left a deposit and we hoped for the best. My car was only 10 min late, so that’s not too bad, but our driver was a mess, his suit was all dirty, he really looked like he was drunk, didn’t know how to operate the car properly, didn’t know directions and took a copy from our photographer!!! My door wouldnt open so the driver had to open it from the inside, my photographer wanted to get a shot of me with the window open but he couldnt because the windows wouldnt go down! My mom at one point wanted to get out of the limo cuz she didn’t think we’d make it there in one piece. DH’s limo is another story. He was supposed to get the X5, instead he got a beaten up, dirty Excursion and that came an hour late cuz supposedly the X5’s belt broke, I think it’s a lame excuse and they doubled booked the car, they seem to use this excuse a lot and did the SAME thing to DH’s cousin who got married 2 weeks before us at Crest Hollow. Our ceremony started over an hour late because they got DH there that late! We also lost time and money with the musicians we hired for the CH and the vocalists we hired for our reception, they both had bookings later that night and had to cut their programs short since everything was delayed an hour or so. We plan to meet w/ M&V and if they don’t refund our money we will take legal action against them. The escalade that picked us up to take us back home was on time and got us home ok, that driver was nice and knew directions. But that doesn’t make up for what happened earlier.

Flowers Jack and Rose, Woodbury: F

This is another vendor that we booked before knowing all the drama behind his business and we gave him too large of a deposit to cancel. At the first meeting Jack was so nice and passionate about his job, we felt like he could do no wrong. I later realized he’s just a good talker and really doesn’t care about his customers.. his tune changed after he got our deposit. At the design session, he was no where near as nice or passionate. Then about 5 months before our wedding we considered changing our CPs cuz DH’s cousin that also used J & R and getting married 2 weeks before us were doing 2 dozen red roses in their CP just like us. And I didn’t want to have the same CPs since half our guest list was identical to theirs, so I called Jack to see if we could do something different instead. Jack purposely avoided the calls and I kept getting promises that I’ll get a call back and 2 weeks later I called and said I really want to speak to someone. So Robin who is the receptionist started talking to me but I could hear Jack in the background telling her what to say. This really irritated me cuz if he was there he could have easily picked up the phone and did the talking himself rather than using Robin as his puppet. Anyway long story short, they were no help at all and were rude about the whole thing. So we dropped it and kept the CPs as originally planned.
Day of the wedding : Jack arrived 45 min late to the house, when he got there he asked my sister “is the photographer here yet” and she said “no” and Jack goes “o good then I’m not that late.” That’s it! No sorry for being late, no explanation! My BM and MOH boks were much smaller than they should have been, the men’s bouts were falling apart by the ceremony time. We ordered like 150 carnation bouts for our immediate fam members and pastors and they were the dinkiest cheapest looking things ive ever seen in my life!! I was so embarassed to give them out! The chuppa looked NOTHING like he said it would or how we ordered it. And Jack stressed to us how he'd give us a beautiful 'premium chuppa' There were a lot of things we ordered that weren’t even there or weren’t done right. Jack didn’t want to drape toule down the aisle for us for some dumb reason, luckily Rosalie had toule in her car and did it for us!
The only thing that I was happy with were our CPs. We got a lot of compliments but I counted the number of roses in a CP that DH’s parents brought home and there were only about 19 roses and not the 24 we paid for! I have a feeling that it probably wasn’t the only CP that was short changed. The funny thing is at DH’s cousins wedding I counted their CP at our table and it also had only about 20 and not the 24 they paid for!! We spent a lot of money on flowers and we definitely did not get what we paid for. I really regret booking w/ J & R and falling for all the crap they load you with on the first day you meet them. And I found my date twin on here so the whole “one wedding a day” thing is a lie too. I just came to know that they gave my DOC such a hard time, she said it was hwer worst experience with them yet! The delivery guy wanted to leave before even finishing everything and all that free stuff they supposedly give you is a lie, cuz they didnt do any of it!! Definitely do not recommend him at all!!!

Chocolate Fountain, Simply Chic Events: A+
www.simplychicevents.com
The only vendor I found with reasonable prices, got back to me right away, and were very nice to deal with. Everyone LOVED our fountain. They sent some chocolate covered strawberries to our bridal suite and they were amazing!!!!!!

Honeymoon-Royal Hideaway Resort in Mexico: A+++++
www.royalhideaway.com

This place was gorgeous, our villa was beautiful, they greeted us w/ champagne, the service was unbelievable, and everyone there is so nice and friendly. The food is phenomenal!! They have 6 different restaurants to choose from for dinner. Our favorite was the Asian and Italian spots. The margaritas and guacamole and chips by pool is sooo good! We did a couples massage there twice and loved it!!
We booked through an agent that works for American Express, his name is Tom and his email is [email protected]. Tom was great! He was soo nice to work with, gave us a great deal, took care of everything for us. I know several people that have used him and were happy. He’s traveled a lot so can give you his opinion on a bunch of places as well. We did all our communicating through phone and email. I loved it because its one less place I had to go visit to pick things up or drop things off at. He didn’t let us down in any way. If you want any more info FM me.

Wedding Invites-www.indianweddingcard.com: A+

They were so easy to work with sent me proofs until every detail was exactly how I wanted and they were patient even when I changed my mind 100 times. We got the invites quickly and they included gold seals for us. We were very happy with the outcome and got a ton of compliments. Even though the shipping is alot of $ I found that it would have worked out to be the same if I had purchased them here.

Cocktail hour music: A+
I was referred by Ianbay.com to Rachel who plays the sitar and she brought her friend who is a professional tabla player. They were great and a big hit at our wedding! If you want info FM me.

Ebay: A+
I ordered candles from ebay and mint packets. I also found a vendor that I was able to order 24 ' glass vases from for my CPs. The cost was about the same that my florist wanted to charge me for renting them. So I purchased the vases instead so my guests could take them home.

Wedding Rings: A+, We went to Tri County-Zareen on several recommendations from girls here. Raymond did a beautiful job w/ the rings and he re set my e-ring for me as well. He gave us a great price and we were very happy! Highly recommend him!

I think I covered everything, if not let me know. I will post some proofs tomorrow if I get a chance.

Feel free to FM me with any questions!

Re: My June 18, 05 Wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

some pics my friend took

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Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Wow! Wonderful review!

I love your BM sari's- what a gorgeous color!!! And you look SO gorgeous! Congrats!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

So happy to hear about Dan Wagner. He's such a great person, I knew he had to be a fabulous photorapher!

your photos look amazing!!

again, congrats!

ETA: sorry about the limos & flowers! that's awful! you should definitely fight to get some money back!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Thank you for the candid review.

Did you say 750 people showed up Or is that a typo Did you invite 750 guests I can't even imagine the seating chart

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Posted by dleeny

ETA: sorry about the limos & flowers! that's awful! you should definitely fight to get some money back!

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Ditto

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Royal Hideaway is the BEST!!!! We loved Azia & Palazzo & Ventanas.

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Posted by akaMrsT

Thank you for the candid review.

Did you say 750 people showed up Or is that a typo Did you invite 750 guests I can't even imagine the seating chart

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lol no that wasnt a typo, we did have 750 guests. Indian weddings are usually bigger than the ave wedding but ours was larger than even the ave indian wedding! I wish I could've had a MUCH smaller one, but it was really upto my parents more than it was upto me, but thats ok. We had a great time.

We loved Azia and Palazzo too! Cant wait to go back!

ETA: We just did open seating, it works out ALOT easier for everyone rather than assigned seating! :)

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Posted by Soon2BMrsA

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Posted by akaMrsT

Thank you for the candid review.

Did you say 750 people showed up Or is that a typo Did you invite 750 guests I can't even imagine the seating chart

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lol no that wasnt a typo, we did have 750 guests. Indian weddings are usually bigger than the ave wedding but ours was larger than even the ave indian wedding! I wish I could've had a MUCH smaller one, but it was really upto my parents more than it was upto me, but thats ok. We had a great time.

We loved Azia and Palazzo too! Cant wait to go back!

ETA: We just did open seating, it works out ALOT easier for everyone rather than assigned seating! :)

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Wow!!! I never knew that Indian weddings were so large. I am complaining about inviting 265 people knowing about 150 - 175 will attend. 750 guests At least you did not have to do a seating chart

We love RH. It's such a great vacation spot. They totally cater to the guests. There are a few RH pics from 2002 & 2004 in my LIW community albums.

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

AMY! I just read your review and am so glad that everything (for the most part) was wonderful. You got it right, nothing is perfect, but the most important thing is to have fun and let go...which it looks like you did. You looked BEAUTIFUL! Your make-up and hair were flawless, just gorgeous!

And wow, 750 guests... I also thought that was a typo...that's an amazing feat that your hall was able to accomodate all your guests...it sounds like they were great!

So very sorry to hear about your limos and flowers. But like you said, those are things you notice and thankfully your wedding sounds like it was amazing anyway.

And RH - well, you read my review...that place is just out of this world! When we went to Azia my DH had dessert twice (the fried green tea ice cream) and Palazzo was host to 5 courses by DH - so yes, we loved them both as well! Our favorite was The Grill though, we ate there 2 nights in a row (the night we had dinner on the beach we picked their menu). So glad to hear that you were as pleased with RH as we were...it is worth every penny! And I'm jealous - 2 couples massages? My Dh could barely deal with one, he fell in love with the masseuse. Did you have the strawberry margaritas? Or the tamarind one from Spices? They rock!

Wishing you and your DH a long and beautoful marriage! Many congratulations!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

WOW! You look so amazing! Your review was great and I'm sure going to be very helpful for ucoming brides. So sorry about the flowers and limo. And, OMG 750 guests....what a party!

Congrats to the new Mr. & Mrs.

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Hi Amy,

I have been waiting for this! Glad to hear everything went well at Greentree, except for the bathroom incident. You made a beautiful bride! Congrats!!!!!!!!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Got any cake pics? Did you use the cake Greentree provides?

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

congrats you look great and great review

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Posted by metsgirlie

Got any cake pics? Did you use the cake Greentree provides?

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we did use their cake, i gave them a picture of a cake with an indianish look to it and they copied it pretty well. we were really happy with it. We chose strawberry shortcake, our guests said it was really good!!!

heres a pic..the florist did a cake topper of roses..i'll show you a better pic that my photographer took when I get them.

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Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

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Posted by metsgirlie

Hi Amy,

I have been waiting for this! Glad to hear everything went well at Greentree, except for the bathroom incident. You made a beautiful bride! Congrats!!!!!!!!

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Carmen,

Im sure you'll be fine, I really think its cuz our wedding was so big and that we had the ceremony and reception in the same room we ran into some problems. Ive heard really good things about the Greentree before my wedding so Im sure they'll take good care of you! Let me know how it goes or if you need anything else!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

wow- whata huge wedding, the fact that you pulled it off- is AMAZING! the pictures look great. i love the saris and your outfit. everything looks great and i hope you have good luck with the vendors you did not get good service from!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

Wow!! You look so beautiful and I absolutely love the BMs and the GMs outfits. Sorry about the flowers and esp. the limos. Hopefully this review will help other brides.

Congratulations again!!!

Re: 6/18/05 wedding @ Greentree C.C.

What a great cake!!

Thanks so much for the info Amy.